Between pages 20-21 there is an insert provided by Jennifer Heyward to Eric Husch that proves, for the first time known to anyone in modern history, that The Archer’s Tales was a book that actually existed. Until then, as Eric stated, no evidence existed to suggest that The Archer’s Tales, or Sobreiro, were anything other than figments of V. M. Straka’s imagination.

The Archer’s Tales (Los Cuentos del Arquero) was known interchangeably as The Book of S (El Libro de S). It was destroyed in a fire at a Spanish abbey known as San Tadeo de la Tejera in 1759. The abbey was located somewhere near Bilbao, Spain on the northern coast. There were 19 monks at the abbey at the time of the fire, and all but one perished. The brother who survived managed to save and transport a sack of books to the Santiago Cathedral in Bilbao, but he was unable to save The Archer’s Tales.

The name San Tadeo de la Tejera means, literally, Saint Heart of the Yew Tree (tadeo = heart, tejera = yew tree). The yew tree has a perfect wood for creating longbows for archery. It is also prized for use in the construction of musical instruments, such as the lute.

One of the only two accounts of this story of the abbey, its fire, and the copy of The Archer’s Tales include Captain Norbert Strunk of the whaler ship known as The Imperia. In Ship of Theseus, Sola is traveling on a liner called The Imperia. The other account is from Sister Ulrike Stoecklin of Winterthur, whose name means literally Prosperous and Powerful Tree Stump (Ulrike = prosperity and power, Stoecklin = tree stump).

“The Burning Word: The 1759 Fire that Destroyed San Tadeo de la Tejera and one of History’s Most Curious Libraries” by D. W. MacCarrach, Ph.D., University of Prestwick

of the brothers were skilled record-keepers, and so we must depend on Azarola’s account, flawed though it may be, to infer many of the titles that are not explicitly accounted for in Brother Ruben’s inventory.1

The volumes most frequently mentioned in the correspondence of visitors to the abbey are two illuminated works: the Lives of the Saints by Emiliano of Zaragoza (early 15th century); and a volume that Father Leopold Jäger referred to as the Albufeira Bible by Eustaquio of Sagres (early 16th century). Both are hailed as astonishing works of artistic vision and meticiulous craft. A compilation of the library’s extensive collection of psalters appears in Appendix F, breviaries in Appending G, and hymnals in Appendix H.

Several of the travelers who wrote the most extensively about San Tadeo, including Azarola, were as unnerved by the atmosphere of the abbey and the behavior of the monks as they were by the size of the collection and the beauty of many individual volumes. The monks were not a silent order, but they communicated to each other only in guttural whispers that were unintelligible to outsiders. The building was unfinished, with several passageways ending suddenly, sending inattentive walkers falling fifty feet to the rocky ground. Azarola complained about an inordinate number of birds nesting throughout the abbey, including in the kitchens and in the cells where travelers took their rest. Igorko of Bratislava wrote in his journal the he scarcely could believe the abbey existed, even though he had just passed a month within its walls.2

—1. History owns a tremendous debt of gratitude to the unidentifiable young novice who survived the blaze and walked barefoot all the way to Santiago Cathedral in Bilbao whilst toting a sack full of books he had saved from the flames. At the cathedral, he spoke with a priest, Father Ulises, who had been at work scrubbing the stone floors. All we know of the novice comes from Father Ulise’s account: the young man lamented the loss of the other eighteen brothers, but he was utterly inconsolable at having failed to preserve a particular tome, an extensive compendium of fantastic, revelatory, subversive, bawdy, and chilling tales gathered by a mythic archer in his travels across the world. (The title of the book is unclear – Father Ulise’s refers to it once as El Libro de S (“The Book of S”) and once as Los Cuentos deal Arquero (“Tales of the Archer”). As a forbidden secular text, it would not have appeared in the abbey’s written records.) The novice left the sack of books in Father Ulise’s care, accepted water and a half-loaf of bread, and continued on with his travels, of which nothing is known. It is worth noting that we have only third-hand accounts of this exchange between the two religious men, but those sources – Sister Ulrike Stoecklin of Winterthur and Capt. Norbert Strunk of the American whaler Imperia – are not, on the whole, considered unreliable.

2. Igorko’s statement was prescient, in a way. My study of official records in the area and my informal interviews of local residents suggest that hardly anyone believes the abbey ever existed.

Upon discovering the very first S symbol at the tavern, S thinks This is where he’s supposed to be. (p14)

“We’ve ‘structs. To take y’. “Take me where?” “No where.” (p33)

“He – this alleged S – has no control over who or where or why he is.” (p34)

“The ship has docked at a decrepit-looking pier on a small, gray island that looks to be the very definition of Nowhere.” It is here – Nowhere – where S meets The Lady, reads The Book of S, and learns that he has choices, even when he thinks he does not.

Much of the book is focused on locating someone or some thing.

CEASE EFFORTS TO LOCATE ME (V. M. Straka, telegram insert, p54-55)

“Tell us where they are. Tell us where they are.” (p73)

“If Straka is dead, then where is his body?” (p xiii)

“Where’s the man with the scar?” (p33)

“Y’ ought be more heedin where y’put y’spires.” (p55)

“WHERE ARE THE ZAPADI THREE?” (p75)

At the location of the second S symbol in the book, as S is looking for Sola, he thinks Where did she go?(p100)

“Without intuition, the world becomes a flat place, a stunted place. A place where change is impossible.” (p117)

“Every story comes from somewhere.” (p149)

“Dive, stroke, rise. Where is she?” (p199)

Just before S receives the valise that changes his life, Ostrero asks Where is Abdim? (p244)

Corbeau searched her entire life for the location of the caves of the K–, but did not find them until she was with S.

The location of the storehouse in El H– was a secret, until Agent #26 discovered it. (p314)

The Winter City’s location is a mystery. (p380)

The location of the pirate Juan Blas Covarrubias’ richest cache of treasure is a tantalizing mystery. (p410)

Vevoda’s location is too difficult for S to foresee in his writings in the orlop, and he realizes that he will not find Vevoda until he descends into the dark maze himself. (p412)

Vevoda and his Agents spend their lives trying to locate S and kill him.

The location of B–, G–, El H–, and the city with the Old Quarter where S begins his journey are all still mysteries.

The EOTVOS Wheel reveals messages when you correctly determine and order various locations.

The Obsidian Island’s location is a mystery. It’s not on maps. It’s referred to as Nowhere. (p397)

At the third appearance of the S symbol in the book, S asks Corbeau to try and remember where she may have seen the symbol before. She finally remembers – It was on Stenfalk’s valise. (p192-195)

The 57 photographs that S receives in the valise have the numbers of each agent, along with dates and locations of where they were spotted and perhaps involved in wrongdoing (p261-262). S then spends his years planning and locating these agents to assassinate them.

The location of Vevoda’s chateau is a mystery until a woman dies after providing a map to the estate in the south of France in the foothills of the Pyrenees. (p402)

The location of the Bouchard estate is a mystery, but Filomela Caldeira outs Bouchard with the map to Vevoda’s chateau, pinpointing both as the same (see margin notes p312 “Nobody seems to have realized she outed them” and p402).

FXC reveals her location to a hopefully-still-living-S in the Chapter 10 cipher as Marau, Brazil.

When Eric Husch finds FXC still alive and “impossibly old” he writes on a postcard to Jen I FOUND HER. (p201) This hearkens back to Archimedes when he shouted Eureka (or “I found it”).

S uncovers a plaque that shows where Archimedes de Sobreiro fell in 1625. (p386-387)

The first time S gets close enough to Sola to touch her, it is in the flat where Archimedes de Sobreiro lived – and died. (p390)

When S asks Sola how he managed to find her in the Winter City she said simply, “It was the only place left.” (p391)

S “exerts this influence from an estate located in the principality of Rumor” (p316). FXC mentions in the footnote that the original working title for Ship of Theseus was Principality of Rumor.

Several time there is a reference to the hunters: the detectives who hunt our friends as they escape from B– and then into the caves. In reference to this hunt the text says of our friends: They are all simply playing their roles in humankind’s oldest, simplest, truest story (p173). The Lady on Obsidian Island mentions that The hunters are close and closing in. They’ve found us on the waters. S then intuits that Maelstrom’s bleeding map shows this and The Lady confirms it (p288).

As S approaches The Territory with Anca and Waqar, he notices the symbols etched into the hillside (p344). He asks what they mean, and to his surprise Anca responds, “Our stories. Who we are and how we are here.” Later, on p350, S notices the S-symbol, partially destroyed. S himself is a story that explains who we are and how we are here.

S spends much of his time hoping to locate a copy of The Archer’s Tales.

As the margin notes on p431 explain, It all goes back to Calais. Straka’s entire life is somehow defined by what happened there in the 1912 massacre.

The footnote on p415 is the most telling of all.

Straka’s phrasing here is no accident; though the characters have a map to the Vévoda estate, they still must view the location through the fog. As the essayist Norman Bergen discussed in the third volume of his Spinning Compass series, there is a powerful human need to locate evil—that is, to contain it by assigning it a specific, bounded place (in some cases, a particular person)—even though this is impossible. The boundaries of evil, Bergen argued, are blurry and porous, if they can be said to exist at all.

This continued emphasis on location, coupled with the overt emphasis on identity, exposes the possible purpose of the S-collective’s methods.

Secrecy must be total, or all is lost. (Marginalia, p187)

The S knew that if the author of the subversive books were known, Bouchard and others could then target that person and pursue him/her and eradicate the threat. But if the author’s identity were unknown, and his location kept secret, then Bouchard would forever be lost, chasing an unknown, moving target.

Straka was lost, too, for a time. His life was defined by a location – what happened there.

It all goes back to Calais. (Marginalia, p431)

Straka experienced that “powerful human need to locate evil” – and once he located it in Bouchard and his cohorts, he spent his days thinking he would never be happy again unless he eradicated the evil he had identified and located. S’s life parallels Bouchard’s with Vevoda. And it all culminates with the discovery of the location of the chateau and with the location of Vevoda himself within the cellars.

Perhaps the point is that trying to physically locate evil only serves to misdirect S’s life. S has choices, though he thinks he does not (p287). And the xebec’s condition reflects the result of those choices. The condition of the xebec worsens only as S reacts to the evil that has befallen him with the continued pursuit of agents and Vevoda himself.

It is only when S let’s go of his pursuit of Vevoda and leaves the location he so desperately wanted to find – and leaves Vevoda alive and well – that S sees…

Not a ghost ship, no; she is a ship with flags flying and sailors working on deck, sails trimmed and humming in the wind, a glorious wake churning out behind her, and what looks like two people standing on the quarterdeck and sharing the wheel. (p456)

Is it a coincidence that the very last sentence of the book has 57 words? And that S spent so much of his life trying to locate and assassinate 57 people? Perhaps not…

He can’t see their faces through the glass, can’t really see much about them at all, but he slides the glass closed and tells Sola that the ship is one of theirs, and as for the identities of the two people at the wheel, well, both Sola and he will let their imaginations fill in their features.

If the EOTVOS Wheel is the key to decoding the puzzles in Coriolis, then there are some conclusions we can draw…

There are still at least two unknown encoded messages in the wheel (it is the key to decoding the puzzles in Coriolis)

Since the Chapter 10 Cipher was solved using the EOTVOS Wheel, then this means that the original message was encoded into the wheel prior to the writing and release of Ship of Theseus. The solution to the Chapter 10 cipher is I HAVE LOVED YOU FROM THE BEGINNING. I WILL LOVE YOU TO THE END. The implication until now has been that FXC enciphered this message to VMS in the Chapter 10 footnotes of Ship of Theseus. However, if this message was already encoded into the wheel when Coriolis was written, and it was the key to solving ciphers in that text, then it seems that the message was actually encoded by VMS and not by FXC. Perhaps FXC’s Chapter 10 footnotes are not encoding her message to him, but decoding his message to her and she is revealing to him that she discovered it. The marginalia on p433 supports this, indicating that, finally, in the Chapter 10 footnotes FXC is disciplined and truthful in her statements and that the reason for this deviation from her previous methods was “her secret” or maybe even “our secret.”

Did V. M. Straka tell Filomela Caldeira that he loved her, and then reveal that message to her in some way that she discovered?

These are the final known words written by Jennifer Heyward and Eric Husch in their copy of Ship of Theseus by V.M. Straka.

This begs the question why do we have their copy?

NO WAY I’M EVER LETTING GO OF THIS BOOK.

Eric pronounces these words seriously to Jen in the margins of p76. But if we are to play the role of the reader who stumbles onto their copy of the book and its precious contents, how is it that Eric ever did actually let it go?

Someone pointed out to me once that the last words of the marginalia are crossed out, and that might be an ominous sign. After Eric writes OK, someone crosses that word out. Are Eric & Jen not OK any more?

Below is the text of the wall-writing that S scrawls into the wood of his room on the xebec – at least the text that is revealed to us in Ship of Theseus. Much more writing occurred, but we are only privy to what is show below. Remember that S began the text at the top of his cell and continued writing in a spiral around his room until it reached at least halfway down to the floor (p217) where it culminated in the question written on p329. The format of the text has been maintained (italics, ALL CAPS, strikethroughs, etc.) in case that is relevant for the possible code hidden there. Jen suggests multiple times that there must be a code.

p207

What S Thought He Wrote

I swam away from the ship. I assumed it had been destroyed. I found myself under a pier, coughing out seawater. I could hear the noise of the demonstration above.

What S Actually Wrote

I SWAM AWAY FROM THE SHIP. I HAD ASPIRED TO DESTROY IT. I FOUND MYSELF UNDER AN ARCH, CURSING AT SENATORS. COULD I HARM THE NOISY DEMONS ABOVE?

FXC’s FootnoteThis may be an allusion to the anonymous 1866 novel Les Démons en Haut, a scathing rebuke of the contemporary Parisian bourgeoisie. While the book is not well-known—indeed, it was banned almost immediately—one can easily imagine that Straka felt a kinship with its author.

pp259-260

What S Thought He Wrote

I was rowed to shore,where a man in a kaftan was waiting for me. We walked from a date palm grove into a city and through a nighttime marketplace. Agents hid among us in plain sight. Caged finches fluttered their wings against their prisons. Children moaned from inside baskets when summoned by flute. The repository is no more.

What S Actually Wrote

I raged at the sun while the moon and constellations whistled for me. We walked, we damned pilgrims, to a cenotaph. The thunder had no mercy; angels bade us adieu, punished by sound. Cairns of fiction flummoxed the winds, held their positions. O, chastened men of ink, battle the sundering force! Le repos est la mort!

FXC’s Footnote

I am told that a French aficionado of Straka’s work is seeking to memorialize the writer with a cenotaph in Paris’s Père Lachaise cemetery. I lack the financial means to contribute to this effort (and the defunct Karst has nothing to give), but I would be pleased if it were successful.

p328

What S Thought He Wrote

O Sola! O for you to transcend this brightest bedlam of invention! Sing to me, Sola, of amour, and may your song pull like a current, carry me through these foaming rapids of blood and ink, for I am a man driven time and again off course.

What S Actually Wrote

O, sailor. O, for your trance to end, this mindless bedlam and deception! You’re simply a sailor, no more. Days are long and nights disturbing. You’ve married a rudely foaming madness of blood and ink, and why? Damned man. Riven time and again, you’re aught more.

FXC’s Footnote

Compare S.’s different responses to his experiences with “mediated writing.” In Chapter 7, he seems flummoxed by it, but one senses a bit of wonder in him as well. Here, though, we see S. resisting it, straining to overcome it, as if he is more certain of what he wants to say and cannot abide not being able to say it. Is it possible that Straka himself was grappling with a similar conflict—between artistic intention and execution? Between desire and the ability to express it? My correspondence with him offers no guidance on the matter, but as these seem like fairly commonplace struggles—the sort that beset many people, not just artists—I will venture to proclaim that it is more than possible; it is certain.

p329

WHO IS SIGNE RABE?

Commentary/Questions

The phrase Le repos est la mort! on p260 translates to Rest is death. This seems to be a deliberate allusion to this quote by Blaise Pascal Our nature consists in motion. Complete rest is death.Thanks @anomija for pointing this out.

Why are the text formats so inconsistent between each of the four different examples? Sometimes the actual text is ALL CAPS, sometimes it is italicized, and sometimes it has strikethroughs.

Why does the wall-writing culminate in the question about Signe Rabe?

FXC’s third footnote regarding the wall writing (p328) refers back to the Chapter 7 wall writing (p259-260) and mentions the word flummoxed – a word used in the wall writing itself. A clue?

Jen and Eric reveal that the question about Signe Rabe was not in the original manuscript – that FXC added it herself. (See marginalia p329)

Does the fact that the wall-writing is written in a continuous spiral around the room have any significance?

One of the pivotal questions we are faced with in “S” is WHO IS SIGNE RABE (p361)? Signe Rabe translates to sign of the raven. Does this indicate that we are to pay special attention to any appearance of a raven?

Below is a walkthrough of interesting appearances of the word raven or one of its etymological cousins.

In Norse mythology, the god Odin had a pair of ravens, Hugin (mind) and Munin (memory). Mind and memory are key themes in “S”

On p5, we see the first human being that S remembers coming into contact with. She has three ravenous sons.

The Old English word hremm was used to indicate a raven – the sound made in the throat that mimicks the bird’s guttural tones. Compare this to p302-303, where Agent #4 is beginning to feel the effects of poison. He coughs again, tries to grind his throat clear with a series of increasingly vigorous hrrrremms.

Ravens and wolves have a symbiotic relationship in obtaining food. Compare this to the creation myth illustrated in the cave paintings (p177-179) where bird figures of the sky and wolf figures of the earth become one.

The word cornice derives itself from the Latin cornix– a place for a bird to perch. Compare this the word cornice on p98 and the margin drawing of a bird.

Rove is connected with raven and means to wander, its earliest meaning was related to archery – to shoot arrows randomly at a target for pleasure. Compare this concept to our famous mystery book The Archer’s Tales.

Cormorant means “Sea Raven.” Compare this to the Lake Cormorant boat house featured in The Daily Pronghorn, inserted into “S” between pages 32-33.

The bird of negative space on p382 is a raven.

The painting of Sola, or Samar, on p242 describes her as a raven-haired girl.

Corbeau – one of the main characters – her name is french for raven.

If you see any additional references to the raven in “S” – please mention them in the comments section.

Why Was the Ending so… Anticlimactic?If you view a single pass of reading through “S” as finishing the book, you might think the “ending” is not all that great. But if you view “S” as something other than a chronologically organized, linear book – one that requires further investigation – rewards await. For example, remember that in the foreword of the book, F. X. Caldeira claims that she was not able to recover all of the pages of Chapter 10 of Ship of Theseus before V. M. Straka either died from a fall through the hotel window or vanished in some sort of staged death. She admits to finishing Chapter 10 the way she thought VMS would have – to the best of her abilities. Did you know that the real ending – the one that VMS wrote himself – has turned up? In July of 2014, author Doug Dorst tweeted that the original ending may have been found. Here is that original ending. It stands up well to comments in the marginalia about the real ending that Eric received from FXC in the mail from Arturo (p421-422,430,452). It also seems the most plausible of the other alternative endings. And even when you read both endings, you get the sense that there is much, much more to the story that requires going deeper to uncover it.

How Do I Tell What Order Jen & Eric Wrote in the Margins?

Pencil. Eric wrote in pencil while taking notes during his early reading(s) of Ship of Theseus before he met Jen.

Blue (Jen) and black (Eric). This is the first pass of notes between Eric and Jen after they “meet” in the margins.

Green (Eric) and orange (Jen). This is the second pass of comments between Eric and Jen after their relationship has deepened.

Purple (Jen) and red (Eric). This is the third set of comments between the two, after they have met in person.

Black (both Jen and Eric). These are the final set of notes and include their comments after they move to Prague.

Knowing the colors will help you see not only how Eric and Jen’s understanding of Ship of Theseus changes over time, but how their character arcs evolve.

Am I the Only One Who Doesn’t Understand What’s Going On?
No. You’re not alone at all. A first pass of reading “S” leaves many unanswered questions. And those questions often seem deliberately left unanswered – at least at face value. But “S” seems to be a deliberate tease – a logic puzzle, if you will – with some information provided but some not, leaving it up to we readers to put the puzzle pieces together – to make associative connections that reassemble what really happened. For example, on p453 we have this discussion between Jen and Eric…

He really was there, right? When the projector went out?I SWEAR I HIT HIM. SIX OR SEVEN TIMES AT LEAST. YOU HEARD ME HIT HIM.So where did he go?STEAM TUNNELS?MAYBE SERIN HAD PEOPLE THERE, TOO.Wish they’d told us. Also wish we could’ve stayed and watched the stars some more.IT WAS YOUR IDEA TO LEAVE EVERYTHING AND GO.How many parking tickets do you think my car has by now?

This fragmented, cryptic conversation makes sense to the two people who were actually there, but to us, we have to reconstruct what they are discussing from not only this conversation – but all of the other things we have learned in “S.”

What can we conclude – given that this incident is never discussed directly before or after this one exchange? A few things…

Both Eric and Jen are there (Jen could hear Eric hitting someone).

It took place on the campus of Pollard State University (the victim likely fled in the steam tunnels).

It was very likely centered around Straka (why else would SERIN have people present?)

There was a projector involved, and when the projector went out, no one could see (Jen could only hear Eric hitting someone).

There were stars (Jen wanted to stay and watch them).

Eric and Jen left for Prague shortly afterward (Jen wanted to leave everything and her car probably has parking tickets)

Eric used to work at PSU’s planetarium, and learned how to use the equipment – which likely includes the projector (p209).

The projector went out unexpectedly, and then someone showed up and did something in the dark that caused Eric to hit him. It is likely that this person deliberately turned off the projector and charged Eric in the dark, hoping for a surprise attack.

The assailant might have fled using the steam tunnels, which had an access point just outside the west side of the planetarium (see p410 and the napkin map of the steam tunnels, originally included between pages 306-307).

The final conclusion from these pieces? Eric was making some sort of public presentation in the planetarium that related to his theory about the mystery of “Ship of Theseus.” Jen was present, as were others, some of whom may have been with SERIN. In the middle of the presentation, someone cut the power to the projector and charged Eric. Eric fought back, striking his assailant six or seven times. The mystery man (“him”) fled, perhaps into the steam tunnels, which had an access point outside the planetarium. This man was, in all likelihood, Moody. And he was probably upset over whatever Eric was presenting in the planetarium, because it discredited his own theories and ruined his chances of getting his book published. This example is just one of literally hundreds of places where we, the readers, must make deductions about the larger story using only the morsels we have been given. Here are a few more to get you pondering…

On p328, FXC inserts a question not contained in the original manuscript of Ship of Theseus – “WHO IS SIGNE RABE?” On p361, we discover that Signe Rabe was a real person, born 11/4/1930 and later married to Jean Bernard Desjardins on 12/1/1952. The publication date of Ship of Theseus is October, 1949 (title page), and FXC’s foreword was not written until Sunday, October 30, 1949. This means the book must have published on October 31, 1949. The date of FXC’s foreword is significant – it is an anniversary. Can you tell what it is? And just four days after the book was published, something significant happened. Can you tell what, using only the clues mentioned in this bullet point?

On p354, as S climbs through the dense band of forest along the hillside up to the governor’s mansion in the territory, he catalogs the sound of several birds that he hears that “sound out of place to him.” They include, in order: a merlin, a crow, an oystercatcher, and a magpie tanager.” There is something very significant about these four birds. Can you see what it is before you read further?

If you look very closely at the postcard inserts (the ones that Eric sent to Jen on his trip to find FXC in Brazil), particularly the one that was inserted between pages 192-193, you can see that the address has been overwritten with a heavy, black marker. However, if you look closely, you can barely make out the actual location of Pronghorn State University. Look at it yourself. Then, go research that area and see if there is anything significant that might help understand “S” better. If you don’t have the patience, see for yourself here.

Besides the name S__, several locations in Ship of Theseus are also left either unnamed (the city in which the book opens) or with only the first letter(s) provided: B__, G__, El H__, P__. P__ is mentioned on p321. It doesn’t take much research on Wikipedia to discover what the name of that city is. The others, though, are more of a mystery. And yet we seem to be challenged to discover them. For example, B__ and G__ are close to each other and both lie on the eastern coast of some country/island. We know this because, if you read the details in Agent X (Chapter 4), you will see that S, Stenfalk, Corbeau, Ostrero, and Pfeifer head south from B__ (obviously a coastal town since S washed up in it) to the small port town of G__, which is over the mountains. We know that the coastline is to their right as they look North because of p151-152. At the end of the next chapter, after S leaps into the sea from the cave with Corbeau, he descends into the water so deeply that he startles a school of black scabbardfish. These fish exist only in the Atlantic Ocean between the latitudes of 69° N and 27° N. These details narrow down the location of B__ enough to where, with enough detective work, we might be able to figure out the name of the city – and that may be a clue in and of itself to help solve the rest of the mystery.

What about the EOTVOS Wheel?
As you have noticed, there are ciphers encoded into Ship of Theseus by FXC with clues in the footnotes. Many of those ciphers are solved by Eric and Jen. Included in the very back of the book Ship of Theseus there is a code wheel that contains various letters (of which you can only see five at a time) and a wheel that lets you change which letters you see by choosing different geographical coordinates in latitude and longitude. Chapter 10 has no cipher solution as presented by Eric and Jen, but they mention that there must be one. If you pay careful attention to the footnotes, you will notice that each one contains a location on the earth that can easily have its geographical coordinates located. Given this, is it possible that the EOTVOS wheel could be used in conjunction with those coordinates in order to obtain a hidden message to VMS from FXC? Give it a try. When you are done, you can check your work here.

What Do I Do Now?I encourage you to seek your own connections using the marginalia fragments, scattered facts within Ship of Theseus, and doing your own research and post about them on your own blog or in the comments below so that we can all work together and put the story together better. Here are a few ideas of things to ponder or resources to examine.

On p403, Ship of Theseus mentions a woman drowned in wine and washing ashore in Cap de Bol. In the margins, Jen says this actually happened. A newspaper in Marseilles reported it happening on 3/19/1948. But if VMS wrote this long before his supposed death on June 6, 1946, how did he write about something that did not happen until two years later?

There has been no known solution to the Interlude or Chapter 9 (Birds of Negative Space) ciphers, if there are any.

The EOTVOS Wheel website is officially part of the story and contains more information about the various Straka candidates and Santorini man murders that may help you understand more.

The Summersby Confession (also official) in audio format (transcription included) is the tape that Ilsa stole for Moody that helped him advance his book promoting the idea that VMS was Victor Martin Summersby.

On p328, Jen repeats her conviction that there is some sort of code present in the “wall-writing” – the words that S cuts into the wood of his room on the xebec and the words he actually intended to write. No one has yet presented a solution.

Now that you know roughly in what order Jen and Eric communicated with each other (the different color inks), you can reread their story somewhat chronologically and likely understand things better.

Repeatedly throughout Ship of Theseus, the word absurd is used to describe something that seems improbably or impossible. However, there seems to be a tease in each of those cases, as if we should look further…

Absurd, on the face of it, but true somewhere beneath. (p72)

Below is a catalog of these absurdities. Perhaps the truth is somewhere beneath…

Straka Candidates (ix)

A little girl receiving messages from a fourteenth-century nun! An ancient Nazca king, originally from a distant planet! Grand Duchess Olga, writing both before and after her murder!) and other absurdities (A murderous Serbian nationalist known only as “Apis’s Amanuensis”! The almost-certainly-fictional “Last Spanish Pirate” Juan Blas Covarrubias! The proverbial million monkeys!), which merit mention only to be scoffed at.

A Connection Between Sola’s Drink and the Waterspout (72)

He remembered, then, that flash of connection—the waterspout, her drink. A message from some deep recess of his mind: he was not a stranger to her. Sola? Absurd, on the face of it, but true somewhere beneath, and when he pushed off from the harbor mine, that truth helped drive him to shore.

S Swam Many Degrees of Latitude after the Ship was Destroyed (73-74)

The air has an autumnal feel, much cooler than it was earlier today on the ship—such a radical change that S., for a moment, imagines he has swum across many degrees of latitude. Of course such a notion is absurd; it may even be a sign that his mind is slipping, that the long, cold swim has gravely compromised him, that he might be at risk of blacking out anddeparting this world as an anonymous bit of humanjetsam pinned under a wharf beneath a strange city.

The Detective in the Browncoat Recognizes S and Winks at Him (83)

When he sweeps his gaze across the factory, his eyes are drawn to the brown-dustered Detective swiveling a spotlight on the roof. He lets his gaze settle too long, though, and gets a shock in return. The browncoat seems to meet his eye directly, may even have brushed the brim of his fedora and nodded in his direction. S. feels his stomach tighten. He might be mistaken—he must be mistaken—but what if he is one of them?No, he tells himself. Absurd. More absurd thoughts from a mind that is in no condition to be trusted.

The Harbor in B__ is Mined (122)

“They’ve accused us of mining the harbor, too. To interfere with Vévoda’s business.”

“That’s absurd. Again, I would have known.”

“For what it’s worth,” S. says, “the harbor is mined. Well, there’s one mine, anyway. I ran into it as I was swimming.”

Corbeau is Indirectly Responsible for the Bomb in B__ (132-133)

“Are you and Stenfalk—” He pauses to consider his phrasing. “A couple?”

“What makes you ask?”

“Curiosity.”

“Well,” she says. “Not formally. But yes, we are, in a way that has scandalized some of the more limited minds around us.”

“Ostrero’s wife?”

“You noticed? I’m certain she blames me for all of this. Some sort of free-floating carnal witchery, I suppose, that plagues all the men around me. And, apparently, that detonates explosives in crowded places.”

“Absurd.”

The Valise S Receives from Abdim at the Storehouse in El H__ is Stenfalk’s Valise (246)

It reminds him of Stenfalk’s valise, the one he left behind in the hills, although it seems smaller, the leather thinner, the handle made from a lighter-colored wood. It looks enough like Stenfalk’s to give pause, but of course it could not be the same one. Could it? No. Absurd.

S’s Job is to Find Vevoda’s Agents and Poison Them

His task, it would seem, is to seek out these people and poison them. This, of course, is absurd. He does not know where these people are. He does not know where—or even when—he himself is. He has no idea how to track a person who does not want to be found.

In the Jen Heyward Tumblr Blog, which is proven to be part of the canon of the “S” story, we have discovered several clues. Here is another that needs more work. Perhaps you can find the source of the tantalizing text teasing us from beneath the spiral notebook in the photo below (the arrows are added to highlight the text).

Here are enlargements of the two sections. If you figure out the words and, more importantly, the source from which they come, let me know by email or in the comments and I’ll add your discovery and credit you. Good luck!

Fn5 in Chapter 6 has been frustrating. Yes, the last two digits of the years (64,33) were used as part of the overall Nihilist cipher spanning most of the footnotes to form the message MAC WAS JUDAS NOT TIAGO (see marginalia p236). However, the use of the years does not address the use of the name Ragnar Rummo of Estonia.

Until now?

Adam Laceky, an avid fan of “S,” noticed this: within the nihilist family of ciphers is the VIC Cipher. It uses what is called a straddling checkerboard. A key row in this encryption mechanism uses only the highest frequency letters: ESTONIA and R. And there it is: Estonia and Ragnar Rummo – emphasis on the R.

This is an amazing find (thank you, Adam!). It does not yet give us the complete cipher or its solution, but it seems a giant leap for Strakian kind. Perhaps this is enough for the cryptanalyst in you to crack the code?

On the Jen Heward Tumblr blog, we find a copy in the canon of “S” referred to in Fn1, p259 used to solve the Chapter 7 cipher (see Fn5 and Jen’s marginalia on p263). Here is a helpful transcript (thanks @CFish6) if you would like to read the obituary.

The obituary is clearly a copy from the original newspaper. The column is oriented at 90-degrees from the newspaper’s title and the obituary likely was not on the front page. Something that was on the front page has been cut from view. However, if you look closely, you can discern the title of the lead story in the paper.

Tiny ‘Moons’ Circling Earth Proposed

The original article, written by William S. Barton, originated in the Los Angeles Times on February 3, 1946 as…

The topic of this article is, in essence, the birth of the idea of launching satellites into space to allow the interrupted international broadcast of television, telephone, and telegraph communications. This article uncovered its ideas from another article, written a few months earlier by none other than Arthur C. Clarke for the magazine Wireless World.

In this barn studio, Hemingway wrote portions of A Farewell to Arms. If I were Jen and Eric, and I wanted to utilize a book cipher like the one FXC uses on p184, this is the book I would use.

The fact that the postcards were sent “C/O Pronghorn Java” means that Vanessa, who worked there, was the recipient and guardian of the postcards – which corresponds to the marginalia at the bottom of p231. And since we know that FXC received an unwelcome visit from someone after Eric (based on Arturo’s letter), then we can infer that Vanessa was not trustworthy. She likely disclosed the postcard information to Moody and/or Ilsa, along with the fact that Eric and Jen would meet there in the private room in the back.

My friend Mike, aka @anabramsfan, pointed out to me that in Jen’s screenshot of the VMS ending to Ship of Theseus, there was a window opened behind that one and you could see some text and what looked like a photograph. He also pointed out you could see the cover of The Winged Shoes of Emydio Alves. You can only see thin slivers of these things, but he was right – something was definitely there.

Here is the first screenshot. Notice on the right that you can see a large vertical slice of the cover of The Winged Shows of Emydio Alves. The slice on the left is very thin, and you can only see a few letters. Not much to give you a clue as to what you are looking at.

In the third screenshot, however, the top window shifts, reducing the amount we see of Winged Shoes and giving as a much larger slice of the left side of the window underneath.

Study it carefully. There is text – white letters on a dark background – for the top 2/3 of our slice. Then there is what Mike pointed out looks like some sort of photograph. Then below the photograph, a little more text.

Now take a look at this screenshot, taken from the website EOTVOSWHEEL.com. Compare it to the vertical slice in the screenshot above. You will see that in the jenheyward tumblr blog screenshot, the visible portion of the photograph includes the lower back of the monkey and the podium on which he sits. You can also see the beginning of the word illness below the photograph,which corresponds to the EOTVOSWHEEL.com site as well.

So what we see is that Jen Heyward has a window open on her computer to EOTVOSWHEEL.COM as she is creating the screenshots to reveal the VMS ending to Ship of Theseus.

Ah, but is she just looking at the website or is there something more?

Take a look at the first screenshot again. Zoom in to the top right corner, which shows a portion of the toolbar above the cover of Winged Shoes. You will see an icon for MAC software that typically means, if I am not mistaken, edit or format.

It does not appear that Jen Heyward is viewing the EOTVOSWHEEL.com website. It appears that she is creating it – or at least editing it.

Did Jen and Eric make up the name J.W. Dominguez as an alias in order to post theories about V.M. Straka without having their own identities compromised? Does J.W. stand for Jen Heyward?

As Mike pointed out, the home page has a post that was erased [REDACTED] due to “cease and desist” orders. Mike suggests maybe Moody/Ilsa are the reason for this.

Another reason that Eric/Jen might be behind EOTVOSWHEEL.COM is this: further down the tumblr blog is this photograph…

Notice that Jen has, in the background of her photograph on the top right, a contact sheet of the four Havana photographs. They don’t just have single, printed copies from the website. They have either the original, or a copy, of the actual contact sheet from the negatives. But as we have seen, the Havana photographs are fake. Does this mean that Eric/Jen faked them and posted them on EOTVOSWHEEL.COM?

Also, on the left-hand side of the obituary is handwriting. You can see the name J.W. Dominguez and Eotvoswheel.com. Above both of those you can also see “Juri Mol” – a name which is cut off before we see the remainder. Is this Juri Moller, whose Pinterest page appears to be the Danish guy posting pictures of the S symbol as he finds them throughout the world – referred to in the marginalia of S?

In the alternative ending of Chapter 10 for Ship of Theseus, when the point of view shifts to the monkey, S is referred to as the transparent man. Rather than spoil the mystery with my own musings, I leave you to focus on the following: a portion of p376 from “S” and a portion of the alternative ending – particularly the portions that I have highlighted in green. I encourage you to comment with theories or questions as to what these connections might mean.

There are photos that are purported to be of the hotel room V.M. Straka was staying at in the Hotel San Sebastian in Cuba the night of June 5, 1946, when he was supposed to meet Filomela Caldeira for the first time. Pages x-xiii in the Foreword describe how FXC waited in the hotel restaurant for VMS until midnight. She persuaded the desk clerk to take her up to the room where she found the third-floor hotel room ransacked,

an open window, and what appeared to be a body in the alley being loaded onto a truck.

At least on photo is mentioned in “S”. Eric writes in the margins on xii…

JUST GOT WORD THAT A PHOTO OF THE SCENE IS UP FOR AUCTION. APPEARED OUT OF NOWHERE. I’M OFF TO NYC.

On p220, another conversation in the marginalia mentions the photo.

Here Eric and Jen are helping us understand that the doubt over the truth about what happened in Havana is strong.

Four photos appear on the site EOTVOSWHEEL.COM, which has generally been regarded as “in-game” to the “S” story, written by a Straka devotee not unlike Eric and Jen. The site is rife with great information regarding Straka candidates, the Santorini man murders, and more.

However, a closer examination reveals that the photos are fakes. Here are three reasons why…

The FilmThe film used to take the pictures is revealed at the bottom-right-hand of each photograph: ILFORD HP5 PL (or PLUS). This film did not exist as HP5 until 1976, and as HP5 PLUS until 1989. If the photographs had been taken the day of the scene, another film entirely would have been utilized.

The DateThe date on the photographs is June 5, 1949. However, we know from FXC that she did not even visit the room until after midnight, which would have been June 6. These photographs are taken in daylight, which means it would have had to have been June 6 or later.

The Frame Number
My good friend Mike, aka @anabramsfan, pointed out that the frame number from the negative roll is the same for all four photos: 17. You can see it at the top of each photograph. What this means is that someone took staged photographs and used the same background template to form all four fakes – not bothering to worry about advancing the frame number.

Mike went so far as to find the actual source for the background template. It was taken by Kale Taylor Photography on April 10, 2011. You can tell it is the same template used in the fake photographs – check out the stock number 3965 at the bottom left of each photo. It matches the template. You might say this is truly a work of negative space(pun intended).

Conclusion
Others have pointed out before that the film was anachronistic with the supposed date of the photograph, but considered it sloppy production by the publisher. What if instead it was sloppy work by the in-story forger? And we are meant to discover this so that we can piece together the true story of “S” more accurately? This is just one more piece of evidence to prove that V.M. Straka did not die in Havana, Cuba.

One more thought. Note that in each photograph, there is a string of numbers and letters with the following pattern: two letters, six numbers, and a single letter. What if the forger knew that his intended audience would see these photographs and embedded a secret code into them so that he could get his/her message safely through? If so, then perhaps our next cipher is right here…